Southern California -- this just in

Fixing California: Legislators need to assume they are gone

Bill Lockyer has some simple, blunt advice for Democratic legislators struggling to make painful budget cuts: Just assume you're not going to get reelected. Then dig in and slash.

Democrat Lockyer -- the state treasurer, former attorney general and longtime legislator who was Senate leader -- has experienced many budget brawls, but never a deficit hole as seemingly bottomless as this. Never before has the state staggered so desperately from crisis to crisis. Next up: The state runs out of cash, can't pay its bills and begins to shut down by the end of July unless it can sell routine short-term bonds.

And the treasurer says he won't be able to find enough investors unless the state's books are balanced by the end of this month.